A year ago I raved about Offensive Combat, an old-school, free-to-play, browser-based competitive first-person shooter with a heaping helping of attitude. Today, with very little fanfare, developer U4ia Games closed.

An arcade beat-em up with a Diablo pedigree; a fast-paced multiplayer first-person shooter; a complex competitive strategy kingdom builder—these are the first shots fired in Facebook's battle to expand its gaming player-base beyond farmers and puzzle-players, with another seven in the chamber for 2013.

Do you miss the early days of first-person shooters, when everyone was pretty much equal and the little guy had a chance of coming out on top? I just played a Free for All match of Offensive Combat, dropped in after the round had already started and still managed to win by one kill—and I suck.

Tomorrow, you can play the new Call of Duty. Separately, you will also be able to play as Bobby Kotick, chief of CoD publisher Activision, in the free (well, mostly free) online shooter Offensive Combat.